Abstract

Health assessments, though generally thought of as large scale, multiple animal, research events can also be an integral part of individual strandings, interventions for disentanglement, and postmortem evaluation of beached animals. While efforts involving multianimal health assessments are geared to maximum data retrieval with multiple researchers and goals, the single animal efforts can also yield a tremendous amount of information given adequate interest, equipment, and the ability to safely handle and support live animal efforts. The cetacean disease data base can be greatly enhanced through diagnostic sampling on well preserved freshly dead animals.

The protocols and recommendations for evaluation of these animals may vary tremendously based on the interest level of the on-site personnel, the level of training for, and availability of new techniques or technical tools, and the diagnostic support offered by limited budgets and available expertise. The overall goals of the stranding network should stress cooperative efforts to retrieve and share as much data and resources as possible to benefit the health of the individual and thereby, the populations. These efforts have investigated the use of: 1) mobile CT radiology, 2) supportive oxygen supplementation to enhance handling time, 3) CT and MRI imaging of well-preserved code 2 animals to help guide necropsy efforts and detect anatomic differences that may be missed on gross necropsy, 4) follow up diagnostics such as viral and bacterial detection and sequencing, and 5) documentation of entanglement profiles for incident comparison, similar to those developed for large whale entanglements. Videotaping and photo documentation of events provides an important historic record for comparison of medical, behavioral, and pathology findings. These visual documents can be used for future teaching, training, detection of trends, public outreach, and to improve the approach and success rate for future interventions, but must be applied with caution to limit inappropriate use and distribution.

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thanks the members of the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) Southeast United States (SEUS) Region Marine Mammal Health and Stranding Response Network who does so much with what is often much less than what they need. Also we appreciate the support of the NMFS SEUS regional office for continuing to support innovation, putting the health and welfare of the animals and the population first, and encouraging a team approach to solving problems.

* Presenting author